Paradise Found
by blacksand1
Summary: Family always finds a way of reuniting, one way or another. Oneshot, Rated for EVA existing.


_I don't even know what inspired me to write this, probably a combination of several different things. I guess this sort of ties in with HatM, like nearly everything I write does nowadays, but whatevs. Oh yeah, and I'm going to pretend that EVA started the whole Paradise Lost thingamabob before MGS1 for plot reasons. Play along with me, m'kay? I own nothing, I hope you like it._

The city of Prague was ablaze with lights that night, which was expected from a large capital city. In the heart of the Eastern European city, a man was being tailed. Well, he wasn't _aware _that he was being tailed, which only further accentuated the skill of the man doing the tailing. The man rounded a corner, and his 'shadow' waited for a second, brushing some long blonde hair behind his ear before continuing on.

Liquid Snake refrained from letting out a sigh as he rounded the corner, following his 'target' once more. This was so _tedious_, why the hell didn't the higher ups give him intel on the location of his actual target instead of just giving him the name of someone working for the target and hoping that following him around would lead Liquid to his boss? This made him hate the Patriots even more than he already did. Right then his Codec beeped loudly in his ear, nearly making him jump.

"What _is _it, Wolf?" Liquid muttered, answering the Codec call.

"Are you there yet?" the Kurdish sniper asked in return. Liquid stifled a groan.

"Call me to ask that again and I _will _hurt you," Liquid snapped.

"You'll resort to domestic abuse, Liquid? _Really_?" Wolf wondered sarcastically. Liquid smiled just a bit.

"I'll take that as a no, then," Wolf continued.

"I'll contact you when I get there, but for now just shut up about it," Liquid said sternly.

"Whatever, just don't keep me waiting," Wolf replied semi-jokingly before hanging up. Liquid returned his attention to the matter at hand. Indeed, he and Wolf had been sent to Prague on a mission to locate and assassinate 'the leader of a terrorist organization' (read: one person out of a group of people that rubbed the Patriots the wrong way) called the Paradise Lost Army.

Liquid was _supposed _to lure their leader into the open one way or another so Wolf could take a shot at them, but Liquid decided that he'd take this on himself with Wolf as his support so he could investigate this personally. Wolf didn't complain, and here he was, suffering for his decision.

_Calm down, it'll all be worth it in the end_, Liquid thought, trying to keep himself sane as the man he was tailing took a back road. Liquid narrowed his eyes and followed him down it; they must be close. He followed the man down several more back roads until they approached a church. Liquid raised an eyebrow, pausing for a minute to behold the building. It made sense, he supposed, given the religious nature of the organization's name.

Liquid let the man go inside before walking up to the church and looking around it for any other entrances. He searched for a little while and was almost certain that he'd have to break a window when he found a small side door. Liquid looked over his shoulder for a second before slipping inside. He ventured through a small storeroom and out into the main room of the church before he encountered any opposition.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard footsteps behind him, and after several seconds Liquid kicked the man in the stomach, not even turning around to do so. His assailant let out a gasp, the wind knocked out of him, and his FAMAS assault rifle flew out of his hands. Immediately Liquid turned, grabbed one of the man's arms, twisted it behind his back (effectively turning him so Liquid was behind him), smashing his knee into his back and pinning him to the floor in a headlock. And all this happened in a matter of seconds.

As the now hapless soldier struggled in Liquid's grip, an older-sounding, female voice remarked, "Very impressive CQC, Snake." Immediately Liquid's head whipped up and he looked to the source of the voice with half a glare; nobody called him 'snake'. _Nobody_. However, this person became the exception right as Liquid laid eyes on them. He was so shocked that he accidentally lost his grip on the soldier. The man ran off in panic, and Liquid took this opportunity to stand up, still stunned.

"Although from what I've heard you prefer 'Liquid' so I suppose I'll call you that," the older woman continued. Liquid barely even heard that, he was too busy staring. This woman… it was like looking in a warped mirror. Her short blonde hair was exactly the same shade as his own, her eyes were exactly the same shade of green as his, and that smirk… he had seen it on his own face so many times. This woman was… But she couldn't be!

"Call me Mama. _Big_ Mama," she continued.

Liquid finally managed the will to speak. "You… Who _are _you?"

Big Mama paused for a second. "…I'm your mother."

Liquid tried to keep his eyes from widening any more. "So _you're _EVA?"

This time she seemed taken aback. "They actually told you about me?"

Liquid awkwardly scratched the back of his neck at that question. "Well, Ocelot did. Technically. It's complicated." They stared at each other in silence for several minutes, the tension thick enough you could cut it with a chainsaw.

But, when Big Mama was about to say something more, Liquid suddenly asked in a furious tone, "Why didn't you interfere? Why did you leave me- me and Snake- to be raised by the Patriots? Why did you leave me to be raised by that _bastard _you all call Big Boss?"

His mother was stunned into silence for several more seconds before her expression turned to one of melancholy. "Believe me, James, I wanted to raise you. They took you away from me the day after you were born-"

"But you still should've tried! You should've fought for m- us! You have no idea what they put me through!"

Big Mama's expression softened even more. "What _did _they put you through?"

Liquid was briefly shocked at the sudden question before he regained his glare. "You want to know? I'll tell you. From the moment I could stand, my father trained me in ways so brutal that no child should even hear of them! And from the second I could understand his words, he told me I was nothing but garbage and that Snake would surpass me in every single way! Then the Patriots saw fit to make me kill the two people closest to me, my best friends! And all because of _Snake_, I became a prisoner of war for four years and lost the one person I ever truly considered a father to me! I-I don't know what would've happened if you did raise me and Snake, but…" Liquid cut himself off, biting his lower lip to keep something not even he could identify back.

Liquid lowered his head, trying to hide his emotions, and Big Mama took this opportunity to crack a small smile. "… You're stronger for it, though. I can see." Liquid's head whipped up at that, his face confused now. Big Mama crossed the distance between her and Liquid, not hesitating a bit as she wrapped her arms around her son and pulled him close into a hug. Immediately Liquid embraced her back so tightly that one would think she was his only anchor to the realm of sanity and reason.

Big Mama smiled wider and rubbed Liquid's back like he was just a child. "You went through all that, and look at you now, standing tall and fighting valiantly. I may not have been there to watch you grow up, and I'll regret that for my whole life, but I'm proud of you already." Liquid's grip loosened a fraction, and he smiled into his mother's shoulder. He tried to say something, but he just decided to stay silent for a little while longer.

After a few minutes more, Liquid pulled away and stood up straight, smiling straight on at Big Mama for the first time that night. "You know… They sent me and another operative here to kill you."

"The Patriots?"

"Yup…"

"If you're here with another operative, why are you alone right now?"

"Well, the original plan was for me to lure you out so she could take a shot at you, but I decided to save her the trouble by coming here myself and I decided I could investigate better this way."

"I see. You can lie to the Patriots about this, right?"

"Of course I can." Liquid didn't leave the church until much later, since he had his mother had quite a lot to talk about, and once he had gotten back onto the main roads of Prague the sun was rising. Liquid walked along the river, wondering how he'd phrase his explanations to everyone in charge, and while he was wondering the Codec rang loudly again, actually making Liquid jump for once.

"Yes?" Liquid answered casually.

"How the hell does an assassination take this long?" Wolf demanded. If Liquid were holding a cellphone he'd have flinched away.

"Yeah, that whole assassination thing… it didn't happen," Liquid replied, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"What? Why the- how did you screw it up?"

"… The target was my mother."

"… Oh. I- uh, how are we going to explain this to the higher ups?"

"We're going to lie, of course."

"Good idea." Wolf hung up, and Liquid continued to walk along the river as he watched the sun rise over the Eastern European city.

_UH. YEAH. JUST FELT LIKE WRITING SOMETHING WARM AND FUZZY. _


End file.
